


Markings

by ManiacProductions



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Everyone is Poly cause they can be, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, No Underage Sex, Nothing underage, Polyamory, Soulmate Tattoos, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, no underage sexual contact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-19 14:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2392508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManiacProductions/pseuds/ManiacProductions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which everyone has the first words their soulmate(s) tattooed somewhere on their body.</p>
<p>Looks like being l'cie isn't the only thing that connects our heroes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Markings

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes I know this theme (soulmarks) has been done by everyone and their grandma but I really wanted to do one for myself. I haven't seen any Final Fantasy 13 soulmark fics though, so if anyone knows any then I'd love to read them!

Most everyone has at least one soul mark on their body somewhere; though some very unlucky people were "blanks" or "dead ringers". Blanks were people who didn't develop soul marks by their twenty-first birthday while Dead Ringers were people who were born with tattoos that have been blurred out because their significant other was already dead. People could be born with their soul marks, stating that their soulmate had already been born and was waiting for them. If you developed a mark sometime in your life then that meant your soulmate had just been born. These soul marks were the first words your soulmate would every say to you, they are the color of your soulmate's soul and looks identical to your soulmate's handwriting. Many people's marks are simple  _Hello, my name is..._ or  _It's nice to meet you too_. They were generic, boring, but they got the job done in the end. 

Hope Estheim however was not one of those people; no his marks were odd sentences that were scattered all over his small body. And not only were they odd and some were ridiculously short, but there were also six of them. 

_Six_.

He had six sentences on his body and since he was born with them and they didn't develop, then all six of his soulmates were older than him. Six soulmates, all of them older than him by who knows how many years.

He just really hoped that he didn't develop anymore as he got older. 

It wasn't unusual to have older soulmates, so that didn't bother Hope too much; He was curious how much older the oldest one was though. What did bother Hope was how many soulmates he had, six people is a lot of people to be connected to; way more than most people. The average number of soulmates per person was two, sometimes three people. Hope was just glad he wasn't like that one woman in the record books, by the time she was twenty-one she thirty soulmates and twenty of them were older than her. 

As Hope gets home, he immediately runs to his room and drops his school stuff off.

School was long and boring today, the only that eventful that had happened was Krystal Daught, a twelve year old girl in his gym class, got her first soul mark. One of her friends noticed it developing on her neck and had -very loudly- pointed it out to everyone. It was the most exciting thing during the entire day, even if the tattoo itself wasn't all that exciting. All it was, was a simple  _I would love to show you around, Miss Daught._

Hope sighs and takes off his shirt, standing in front of his bedroom's mirror to stare at the sentences.

_Alright, last one!_

It's an odd, almost chicken scratch, scribble that's light blue and wraps around the side of his upper torso. He wonders sometimes what he's the last person for, a school group maybe? Or maybe it's something to do with sports; Hope hopes so since he's a champion boomerang thrower. It would be nice if one of his soulmates was a competitive boomerang thrower too or maybe played the sport for fun.

_Come on!_

Is a pretty light pink and it's done in an amateur slanted cursive -kind of cursive- way. This one's on his forearm and is the only one visible to the rest of the world around him. Sometimes he imagines his person, he's pretty sure by the writing and color that it's a girl, grabbing his forearm where the tattoo is and pulling him along. In his imagination she's smiling happily at him as she's pulling him along, though he doesn't know where they're going.

_You can save us all._

This one's pink too, darker but not by much, it's also in cursive too though it's a little more clean and nice. It curls around his collar bone though it's usually hidden under the bandanna he wears all the time. The sentence scares him a little, the implications behind it; that  _he_ had to save someone. Well save a lot of someones. Hope thinks, hopes, it means something entirely different than what it sounds. He thinks that maybe he's playing a fighting or competitive game of some kind, that saving them all is just in some game. He really hopes it is, he doesn't think he could handle any real life troubles.

His eyes leave that tattoo move to the dark red and black one just under his bellybutton, it's easy to read though it's a little rushed and slanted. 

_Wait._

One word. Hope wonders why he has to wait and what he's waiting for. Mostly though, he wonders why his soulmate tells him to wait and what they're doing together. He imagines he's running through the school and he accidentally bumps into his soulmate and unknowingly drops his book or a pen or something and his soulmate tells him to wait; he imagines his soulmate rushing over to him and giving him the pen and they have this moment. Hope snorts, honestly sometimes his imagination seemed more like a bad romantic comedy than his -a teenage boy's- imagination.

_Right_.

Another one word sentence, this one is a darker pink than the other two and is written in a generic easy to read font. Hope raises his right hand and traces the letters that are right above where his pant's comfortably sit. He doesn't know why, but he likes this mark the most out of the others. This one makes him feel different, comforts him even.

His best guess is this soulmate will be the one he becomes closest too, something which is common for people with multiple soulmates. Often when two soulmates in group become close enough, they get married.

"Will we get married?" He asks the tattoo softly, wondering if any of his other soulmates will marry each other. He hopes so, it would be nice to go weddings.

_And then there were three._

His last soul mark was a deep blue and went with the curve of his upper right arm. It was written kind of like  _Come On!_ only neater and less slanted. He imagined how this one would play out too, he imagined that he'd be playing a game of target practice with others. It was something he did a lot, playing in tournaments, and he could imagine being in the final three with one of his soulmates. 

"Hope!" Nora Estheim, his mother, calls from downstairs. "Dinner is ready!" She shouts again and Hope grabs his tank top, slipping it on and running down to the kitchen. His mother had already set the table, something which was normally his job, and the table was laid out with his mom's delicious cooking.

"Thanks Mom." Hope says as he takes his seat at the table, he looks around at the table and sighs as he sees the plate set out for his father. "He's not coming." The teen says bitterly, sulking as he glared at the empty seat. It was always empty.

"Hope." Nora admonishes her son, giving him a stern look as she put the last food dish on the table. "There." She says with a big proud smile and Hope grins, his mother did loving cooking and boy did it look good. Cheese mashed potatoes that were seasoned with salt, pepper, parsnip, and roasted garlic. Baked mac and cheese with crunchy bread crust sprinkled on it and seasoned with a little bit of nutmeg in it. And lastly steamed and chopped carrots and broccoli, no seasoning or anything added to it.

"Looks good Mom."  Hope compliments her and she smiles at him, preparing her plate with mashed potatoes and vegetables while Hope scooped a big helping of mac and cheese on his plate. Hope passed his mother the mac and cheese and she passed him the vegetables, giving him a stern yet loving look when Hope tried to put the plate down without taking any. The sliverette huffed and scooped on a small amount of veggies on his plate and happily scooped some mashed potatoes along side them.

"Thank you." The older woman says with a smile, saying thanks over their meal and digging in. Hope grinned and followed his mother's example, saying thanks over, and digging into the food with gusto. The rest of dinner was a mostly silent affair, both Mother and Son sitting and eating in a comfortable silence that was typical during meals. The nice and calming silence that had settled over the two was interrupted by the sound of keys unlocking the front door and a set of loud footsteps echoing from the front door. "Your father's home." She says with a smile, grabbing a plate to make for her husband.

"I can tell." Hope says sourly as his father walks into the kitchen, loosening his tie and kissing Nora. Bartholomew smiles down at his son and Hope just goes back to plate, ignoring his father's presence completely. As the older man sat down, Hope immediately stood up with clenched fists pressing down on the table. "May I be excused?" He questions, not waiting for his parent's reply by grabbing his plate and running off to the kitchen to clean his plate. 

"Hope." Nora says softly as Hope passes through the dinning room again, not sparing a glance at his father.

"I've got work to do," Hope says and heads upstairs to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him. He fell back on his bed with a sigh, staring up at the blank ceiling above him.

"I hope I meet you soon." He says to his soulmates.


End file.
